Black Bear Pub

Also posted review under Bay Street Bistro, as they are the same place I believe. Stopped by for a late dinner Friday. My husband and I shared a burger and both were sick the next day. Same timing, and nothing else we ate could have caused it. Called the owner Sunday afternoon, he challenged us and asked if we went to the hospital to prove it was his burger. BAD attitude, bad customer service. Won’t be back. Shame as we just got a place in the hood.

The only thing worth ordering is steak and that is a) mediocre and b) not available after 9:00 pm or before 4:00. This is why everyone laughs at Ottawa. We really do roll up the sidewalks just when the rest of the world is getting dressed to go out.
Apart from steak everything seems to be on some weird bun.

After a long drive and arriving late, we didn’t want to stray to far from our hotel. It was Valentines’s Day and the place was very quiet. The salad bar was disappointing. It didn’t have much variety and only 3 salad dressings. I had the 12 oz NY Sirloin and it might have been frozen beforehand because it had a salisbury steak look to eat. It was tasty because they put a brown gravy on top. My wife had the penne arribiatta and was pleased with her meal. For dessert we had the apple crumb. It was very tasty. The coffee was weak. The portions were decent and the value was ok. The food was very good but the service had issues. It was slow. We actually watched our waitress take a break and eat a salad while we were waiting for our check. The table next to us had to wait for their meals while the same waitress ate her meal.

Wow, tough Unilocal crowd!
I am here in Ottawa on business and I eat out quite a bit (that’s putting it mildly) and I have eaten at this place many times. It’s convenient since I am staying at the Albert at Bay hotel.
First, the place is a Pub not a restaurant (there is a restaurant attached so maybe the disgruntled Unilocal apply to it?) so I adjust my expectations accordingly. The food is fine with good sized portions and taste. I have had a number of their burgers which come with a ciabatta bun and large helping of fries. I have also had their pizza and fish and chips (I will say I wish they gave you 3 fish instead of 2). All were decent.
Not sure where the bad service reviews came from, but in the Black Bear Pub, service is good-​to-​great. They have a good quantity of friendly, helpful, cute barmaids which do a good job of asking if things are OK and if you need anything. They are very busy filling drink orders and dealing with customers. If someone needed lots of aerobic exercise, working there would do the trick.
OK, but it’s a PUB, what about the beer? I can say without a doubt after many scientific tests (me drinking), their beer is very good! They have a good selection of quality tap and bottled beer. A cold Keith’s red on tap is my favorite. Too bad I don’t drink scotch because they have a HUGE selection.
Entertainment wise, they have live music on Friday and Saturday nights, and have a good number of televisions which are usually showing hockey. I’m not a big hockey fan so this is a «meh» for me.
One thing that really stands out is their daily specials which include numerous 2-​for-​1 deals on burgers, pizza, chicken wings, and nachos.
The place has negatives. It is small inside with an odd layout which makes you feel like you cramped (luckily everyone is friendly). Their condiments such as relish, mayonnaise are pathetic (who likes those little packets?). OK, so this is not a great restaurant, but as a Pub where you can go to relax, eat and drink and feel at home, it is pretty darned good.
Kevin

Good food and service. We had Caesar Sallad and a Ribeye with chips.

We stayed at the Albert at Bay in June and stopped at the pub for lunch when we got into town. Hubby got the shepherd’s pie and I got the steak sandwich. Both pretty terrible. AND the place was really dirty and the service was pretty bad (the one waitress on duty was too busy being chatted up by a waiter from the bistro to notice we were there).
Accidentally ended up there again a few days later (we sat outside in what we thought was the Bistro area… alas, it was the pub again). Got the worst chicken nachos ever, hands down.
½ a star for not giving me food poisoning and ½ for waitresses dressed like naughty Scottish lasses (I’m a chick and even I had to appreciate the uniform).
Outside of that… blech!

We decided to go out for dinner after celebrating Canada day. We chose this place and I must agree with most of the people posting here; the food is gross and the service non existent. We chose the Canada day buffet and it was a dismal tasteless dissapointment to such a lovely evening we were having.
The salads were OK. The pasta was dry as a bone with no sauce. The pizzas were not edible. The only tasty thing on the menu was the chocolate mousse.
The waiter was non existent and barely showed his face; we got our drinks by the middle of our meal, we wanted coffee and had to ask for it twice. What it is it with waiters always dissapearing? We had to flag him down again for our bill. By then we’ve had enough and left without tipping and felt it was justified for no service whatsoever.
We usually tip very well and above the 15%, I don’t get it with waiters, they are always whining that people are cheap when they serve them but jeez you don’t deserve it with a snotty attitude and entitled spoiled bitch and douchebag behavior and then look at the patron with an attitude when you get zero tip-​DUH!!! Really oblivious. If takes a special kind of person to be a waiter, and there’s nothing special in Ottawa that’s for sure.
If you are staying at the Albert at bay hotel, avoid this place like the plague and just go to a Tim Horton’s instead, its much better.

Bay Street Bistro is attached to the Black Bear Pub at the corner of Albert and Bay streets. After a long drive we were tired and hungry so decided to stay close to the hotel and eat at the Bistro. Had to navigate a crowed sidewalk full of loud teenage kids and smoking patrons from the pub’s patio to get into the Bistro. When 1^st seated the doors to the patio were open and we got to enjoy the thundering Ottawa buses and noisy patio crowd. Not something I’d call a Bistro setting. Food was ok but overpriced, I had the chicken penne which could of used more chicken, my spouse had their mustard chicken. Don’t waste your time ordering the garlic bread, you’ll spend $ 4.95 for cut-​up dinner rolls toasted with garlic butter. Had an entrée each, a beer each and one dessert and the bill came to just under $ 56. Wouldn’t eat there again.

Staying at Alberta Bay for work and arrived late, bar full of hockey fans, tvs and cute girls in kilts earns a star.
Their bolognese pasta was actually good.
Curse you for no free pop refills at 2.50 a pop, minus star. Local beers on tap. Heed warning do not order the steak special, stick width italian in desperation.
The issue with Ottawa it’s a dead town beyond bankers hours and the lack of quality foodie dining, steak houses and pathetic pubs prove it.

Found the food here subpar. Service was slow. I ordered a steak sandwich that did not impress

Average pub with decent service and a nice patio.
We were staying at the Albert at Bay Hotel that this pub is attached to and ate here a couple times over the course of our stay. The patio, situated at the corner of Albert and Bay Streets was a generous sized patio with ample seating and live music nightly.
Over the course of our stay, we familiarized ourselves with a couple of the servers, who proved to be very friendly and welcoming with each of our returns. I’d say that was the saving grace of this place, beacuse aside from that nothing really stood out.
The nightly entertainment proved to be more of an annoyance than anything on the first night, and the second was nothing to write home about.
The food was average; the typical fare you’d expect at a pub like this. They did offer nightly 2-​for-​1 specials throughout the week, which was nice, as well as a beer special on Keith’s on the weekend.
I wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone, but if you happen to be staying at the hotel and aren’t in the mood to venture too far from your nest, this is an okay option.

Mark J. got everything right in his original review… average food, extensive list of Scotch whiskey, decent service.
The Black Bear Pub is located on the ground floor of the Albert at Bay Hotel, somewhat combined with the Bay Street Bistro. The Scotch is the main draw to this place. Ordering other mixed drinks, I felt the pours were a bit weak and the prices surprisingly high. Overall, this place feels like a small step above a dive bar, but just barely.
They do have specials during the weekdays… I think Monday is 2-​for-​1 burgers (the Scottish burger is supposedly good), and maybe Thursdays (?) are 2-​for-​1 wings.
Reasons to go here:
1. You like Scotch. Perfect!
2. You are staying at the hotel and it’s too cold and snowy to go outside. Easy choice!

I agree with Mark J’s review: The Black Bear has an impressive selection of single malt scotch and pints, but the wines are oddly listed by varietal/​country but not by house. While I generally don’t go into a pub expecting a good wine list, I do expect decent pub fare and this is where it really falls flat.
If you’re a Scottish pub and you offer fish and chips please don’t let it be an elongated puck of frozen mystery fish alongside some cafeteria fries as this place does. I tried the rack of lamb and although the meat was nicely prepared to medium rare and not overcooked, the accompanying veggies were an uninspired assortment of limp potato medallions, zucchini and broccoli. To top off my evening, my cellphone was nicked from my purse which I carelessly left with my coat on the banquette and which was likely taken by the only guy sitting back there, a staff member still in his checked kitchen scrubs. Bad experience all around, and with so many pubs in this town, I won’t be going back here.

The Black Bear has a few strengths and an unfortunate major weakness. It’s a nice enough interior for a pub, and there’s a patio on Bay Street. There’s an extensive list of scotch whiskey and you can even get haggis here, if you’re feeling brave (unlike me). Service is decent.
The big problem is quite simply that the food is not very good. It’s not horrible, and there are a few OK options like the pizza, but the dishes seem like they are simply the result of assembling a few mediocre-​quality ingredients, rather than the product of good ingredients and a good recipe. Also, I strongly suggest avoiding the buffet — there is not much in the way of choice and what items they have are very bland. They share a kitchen and the buffet with the Bay Street Bistro.
Overall it’s not a bad place to go for a pint or two, but ultimately this is a restaurant review and the food is definitely below average.